The Power of Why

In my early years, I discovered that I was mechanically inclined. Give me an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver, and there wasn’t much I couldn’t take apart. This is where I learned an important lesson which is, “it’s always easier to take something apart, than it is to construct something.”

My interest in how things were made, moved on to become a preoccupation, only instead of wondering how they were made, I found myself also asking “why” they were made.

Today, I would say that those two activities have probably become more of a passion, than a preoccupation.

Once I moved from the “how,” which is the mechanics behind creation, to the question of “why,” which is the motivation behind all human activity, I suddenly started to feel like I was in conflict with the world.

If your a parent with children, you probably have experienced the irritation of having your child question your every request.

The question “why,” is very powerful, because it demands that you justify your thoughts and actions,… something which any power structure avoids doing, because it tends to undermined the authority, the power structure has set up for itself.

And so as parents, we come up with nifty answers to divert and delay those questions, such as, “because I said so, that’s why,” and a host of others, you’re probably familiar with.

To my surprise, I found that the question “why,” is a very disrupting and irritating question, to pose to any individual or group. I feel the reason for this, is because the world is primarily divided into two camps,… the first being those people who “serve,” and the other being those people who “are served.”

Now, since the question “why,” is really a question as to the motivation behind any thought or action, let’s consider the motivating factors. All motivation results in service to only three possible areas. Those areas are your creator, your fellow man, or yourself.

Therefore, we can easily come to the conclusion, that those who’s primary motivation is to serve the self, have little tolerance for anything which they would construe, as disruptive to that service, whether they be an individual, or a corporation, or a government. This also applies to those who are primarily serving the self, under the guise of serving humanity.

My conclusion to all of this is, that if you’re interested in discovering for yourself, the actual state of the world, just start pumping everyone with the question “why?” And if you want to maintain the status quo, (and I cant think of a good reason why), then the proper response is,… “okay!”

Oh, and one more thing,… once you start rocking the boat, you’d better have your life jacket on, because there’s a good chance you’ll have to swim home. Good luck.